There has been a profusion of prior sandal designs embodying a wide variety of construction concepts for both the sole assembly and the strap means holding the sole assembly to the wearer's foot.
Designs proposing strap expedients having some degree of relevance to the present invention include Wermark U.S. Pat. No. 2,038,151, Perugia U.S. Pat. No. 2,136,084, Smith U.S. Pat. No. 2,259,273 and Farley U.S. Pat. No. 3,001,302. In each, the straps embrace the foot including the toe area as well as the heel and arch. Smith's shows a single strap 2 embracing the wearer's toes and having portions 21 and 23 passing across the sandal beneath the insole but without any provision for shifting the strap crosswise of the sole assembly and lacking any appreciation of the advantages to be gained by providing for such relative movement. Wermark shows a sandal having a pair of straps secured to the opposite forward ends of the sole and then wrappable spirally in opposite directions about the shank and the ankle. This construction exposes the portions of the straps to contamination and soiling beneath the sandal and it is difficult and time consuming to wrap the two straps in opposite directions several times about the foot and sole. Each of the other patents show strapping which is secured in several areas along the opposite sides of the sole without provision for adjustment of the straps relative to one another except that possibly permitted by elastic inserts. Additionally, no one of these prior constructions embodies the arch support or an insole having the capability of conforming to the sole of the wearer's foot.